Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 7

By the time Yuan Yao finished bowing, the red thread had drawn even tighter around her right ankle. Pain blanched her face.

She bit her lip, unable to hide her grievance. “You don’t want my apology, do you?”

Xie Yan sneered.

What use was an apology?

“That’s right,” he said coldly.

The instant the word left his mouth, a high-grade artifact came hurtling straight at his face.

Before Xie Yan could react, it exploded.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

At the same time, a net woven from spiritual silk dropped over him.

His old illness had flared up, greatly weakening him. He could not dodge.

Snip!

Yuan Yao severed the red thread with a pair of high-grade spiritual shears.

Thank goodness Master had crammed so many high-grade artifacts into her storage pouch.

She looked down at her blood-soaked ankle, and her expression cooled.

Then she raised her gaze to Xie Yan.

Trapped beneath the spiritual-silk net, he was in a miserable state. The high-grade artifact’s blast had scorched his hair and robes and left him badly injured.

Any cultivator caught in the net would have their spiritual power sealed.

“Cough… cough…” Smoke caught in Xie Yan’s throat, making him cough.

Yuan Yao took her time dressing her wound. Then she limped over and smiled down at him. “Since you don’t like my apologies, I have no other choice. I’ll just have to teach you a lesson instead.”

Her tone was unbearably smug.

Xie Yan stared at her without expression, a thread of killing intent buried in his eyes.

Yuan Yao was not afraid of him now. The sight of him in such a wretched state only made her burst out laughing.

“Hahahahaha!”

He had looked so impressive when he appeared, and now he looked every bit as pathetic.

Xie Yan watched her gloat, his lips pressing into a line.

He had actually fallen into the hands of someone at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

He had underestimated her.

Yuan Yao’s ankle hurt too much to keep standing, so she sat down directly across from him. Feigning distress, she asked, “Now, what should I do with you? Kill you and spare myself future trouble? Or break your foot first and let you taste your own medicine?”

System 250 suddenly spoke.

【Target Xie Yan is an irreplaceable. Host, he cannot die by your hand.】

Yuan Yao frowned. “What does ‘irreplaceable’ mean?”

【Targets are divided into replaceables and irreplaceables. If a target is replaceable, Host may choose not to win them over. If a target is irreplaceable, Host has no choice but to do so.】

“Why is his Awakening Value negative one hundred?”

【Host, you do not yet possess the clearance required to unlock that reason.】

Yuan Yao was speechless.

She cursed inwardly, then cleared her throat and turned a perfect smile on Xie Yan. “Why don’t we call a truce?”

Her abrupt change of attitude surprised him, but he said nothing.

“You don’t want to?” Yuan Yao sighed in distress.

After two seconds of silence, Xie Yan answered with a question. “If I agree, will you release me?”

Yuan Yao nodded. “Yes.”

“Fine.” He glanced at her coolly, signaling for her to remove the net.

Yuan Yao did not move. “First, swear an inner-demon oath that you won’t hurt or kill me once you’re free.”

Xie Yan’s cultivation was formidable. Even Eldest Senior Brother, who was in the early Golden Core Realm, could not defeat him.

She might possess a mountain of high-grade artifacts and the eight life-saving talismans Master had given her, but even those might not withstand his determination to kill her.

Xie Yan remained silent. His black eyes watched Yuan Yao like a venomous snake coiled in the depths, cold and sinister.

Yuan Yao showed no fear.

Instead, she drew her garishly colored longsword from her storage space and tentatively prodded him in the chest. Not hard, but not gently either.

She smiled sweetly. “Well? Are you going to swear?”

A vein jumped violently between Xie Yan’s brows.

Never in his life had he met anyone so determined to court death in front of him.

And that sword…

It was obscenely ugly.

“Certainly.” Xie Yan smiled as he agreed.

He slowly raised three fingers. “I swear that after I escape these restraints, I will not kill you.”

The light of heaven-and-earth law descended over him.

The oath was sealed.

“That’s not enough. Swear another one.” Dissatisfied, Yuan Yao shook her head and prodded his shoulder with her gaudy sword. “You won’t kill me, and you won’t hurt me.”

Xie Yan looked deeply at her.

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you want to know?” Yuan Yao immediately went on guard.

She was afraid this bastard meant to remember her name, track down her sect, and take revenge on everyone there if he could not get to her.

She raised her sword and smacked Xie Yan heavily on the head with the flat of the blade. “Hurry up and swear! Otherwise, I can’t promise my hand won’t slip and drive this sword straight through your skull.”

For the first time in a very long while, pain throbbed through Xie Yan’s forehead.

Then a low laugh escaped him.

“Heh.”

In the silent, lightless cavern, the sound was thoroughly unsettling.

For one moment, gooseflesh rose all over Yuan Yao.

Her instincts had always been sharp. The instant she met Xie Yan’s pitch-black eyes, danger screamed through her.

Her face changed. She thrust out her sword to restrain him.

Too late!

The spiritual-silk net tore apart, and the sword flew from Yuan Yao’s hand.

Clang!

Xie Yan clamped a hand around her slender throat and slowly tightened his grip.

“Ngh…” Yuan Yao could barely breathe. She clawed at his fingers. “Let… go!”

His fingers were as unyielding as ten-thousand-year black iron. She could not pry them loose.

Worse, his entire hand radiated an unnatural cold. The chill seemed to seep through her skin and into her blood.

Xie Yan’s strength had returned.

“Little trash.” He sneered. “I won’t kill you, but torturing you will be easy enough.”

His free hand struck out.

Boom!

The blow hurled Yuan Yao across the cavern. Her back slammed against the stone wall before she tumbled to the ground, apparently unconscious.

Xie Yan rose at an unhurried pace and cast a Cleansing Art on himself.

Then he walked toward her.

Just before he reached her, a noise sounded behind him.

He spun and flicked a hand, knocking the garishly colored sword to the ground.

When he turned back, Yuan Yao had vanished.

Xie Yan’s eyes narrowed, danger flashing in their depths.

His sharp gaze swept the cavern and finally stopped at a spot to the left.

He gave a soft laugh. “Now I’m curious. Who exactly are you? You’re only ninth-level Qi Refining trash, yet you carry so many high-grade artifacts capable of saving your life.”

“I’ll count to three. You had better come out on your own.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

Just before he said *one*, Yuan Yao revealed herself.

“Fellow Daoist Xie, I know I was wrong.”

Xie Yan scoffed. “That again?”